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Back to the Future's original director isn't interested in making a fourth film, but there is one idea that would get him to make another one

One that's a bit more musical in nature.

Doc Brown looks surprised while holding a remote control device, with Marty McFly looking surprised next to him in Back to the Future.
Image credit: Universal Pictures

No, Back to the Future 4 isn't in the books, but original director Robert Zemeckis is technically open to making another film.

While we're getting further and further away from Back to the Future's relevancy, considering the first film is 40 years old next year, they are classics for a reason, and with IP being king, you can only guess at the ways Universal talks about bringing it back. Except, you don't have to guess, as original director Robert Zemeckis recently spoke about the potential of making a new one on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. According to Zemeckis, when asked if Universal is coming to the director begging him for a new one "every couple of years," Zemeckis jokingly responded "Oh, every six months."

Zemeckis did make sure to clarify that this was "just an exaggeration," but Universal does often check in with him if he'd be up for making a sequel. "‘Isn’t there anything we can figure out to do here?'" Zemeckis said, pretending to be someone at Universal. "'Isn’t there anything we can do?'" Interestingly enough, he did go on to say that he "would like to do [a] Back to the Future: The Musical [movie]. I would love to do that. I think that would be great. I floated that out to the folks at Universal. They don’t get it. So, [there’s] nothing I can do."

If you didn't know there was a Back to the Future musical, first of all, there is, and secondly it opened in August of last year on Broadway after it debuted in London in 2022, where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, so it might not actually be half bad. Unfortunately for those that might want such an adaptation, as Zemeckis mentioned, it's not happening, so for now it's sounding like Back to the Future is staying a trilogy (you'll find no complaints from me).

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